In a speech to Superman, Brainiac links the superheroes reemerging into action to the "wannabe superheroes popping up," by which he presumably means characters like the Superchix. This suggests that the strength of the superhero concept is resurging, through a combination of the revitalization of the old characters (and an older generation) and a younger generation who are striving to imitate them, without yet realizing the symbolic power and meanings of the concept. (Again, there may be a subtext here about the actual comics industry.)

So, in a sort of war of public relations imagery, Brainiac and Luthor intend to "nip this little fad in the bud" by humiliating, defeating and destroying the leading superhero, Superman, before the eyes of the world. Brainiac calls Superman's approaching demise "a big, splashy spectacle. A deterrent. A show-stopper, if you will." Right from the start of the original series, Miller's Dark Knight has concerned itself with how the media portray the heroes' exploits. Now even the villains speak in terms if media imagery and spin. One might recall Mel Brooks' lines from The Producers musical: "All you got to know is/Everything is show biz."

Again, Brainiac holds the threat of destroying Kandor over Superman's head: if he flees, Kandor lives, but if he fights, Kandor dies. Superman chooses a middle path, neither fleeing nor fighting but withstanding the attack. This may seem the route of moral compromise, that could very well end in his own death and solve nothing, though Miller pictures Superman heroically here, in apparent praise of his decision.

On the other hand, Batman doesn't seem impressed by this, and is still explicitly rejecting the idea of "compromise" (though, as we shall see, he does not know about the Kandorian hostages).

The generational theme reemerges as the Flash condemns Batman for "dragging kids into your holy war," a variation on the old theme that the old send the young to die in war. Batman, though, defends this: "Wars are always fought by children! And there are always innocent casualties!" Sounds to me as if this is Batman's own moral compromise, even if he doesn't acknowledge it as such: people must die to achieve the greater good of overthrowing tyranny. And Carrie and the Batboys seem younger than typical soldiers. (It's another sign of Batman's and the book's middle-aged perspective that soldiers in their late teens and twenties are termed "children.")

Following the new Joker's murder of the Creeper, a hero created by Steve Ditko, there follows another Watchmen parallel involving Ditko's the Question. In the first issue of Watchmen, Rorschach, a character inspired by the Question, approached various retired superheroes, issuing a Campbellian call to adventure, to aid in finding the Comedian's killer. So here the Question meets with a retired, virtually powerless Martian Manhunter, who suffers from the same sense of defeat that Superman had. Interestingly, the Manhunter does not speak like the unworldly alien being familiar from, say, the Justice League TV series: he looks and talks like a green version of Ben Grimm, the Thing from The Fantastic Four, as if a disheartened Ben had gone back to where he grew up on New York's fictional Yancy Street.

Superman had been convinced it was useless to contend against his enemies; Wonder Woman persuaded him to fight back. The discussion between the Question and the Martian Manhunter puts the issue in explicitly philosophical terms. "A new dawn &#Array; a new age of heroes can be ours," the Question claims, "if we seize this moment and make it happen!" This also seems to be yet another reference to what I have dubbed the Neo-Silver movement in comics, the effort to recapture the heroic spirit of the comics of the Silver Age in contemporary terms.

Claiming precognitive powers, the Manhunter says that he knew he would see the Question tonight and knows he will die tonight by fire.

The Question retorts that the Manhunter has "free will" and can create his own fate. "Determinism is a coward's refuge. The future is ours to create!"

This scene is interrupted as the story briefly returns to Superman's battle, with the initial, ominous appearance of Lara as a somber, silhouetted figure with glowing red eyes. Here is one of the most striking visual images in the whole miniseries: the two-page spread of Wonder Woman astride a winged horse, wielding Zeus's thunderbolt, a picture that, in its power and its explicit references to Greek mythology, conveys the epic, godlike dimension Miller seeks to draw from the superhero concept.

Now the new Joker, this time costumed as the Legion's Element Lad, carries out the Martian Manhunter's prophecy and kills him. One might argue, though, that thematically it was because the Manhunter had given up fighting against his perceived fate that he succumbed to it; significantly, in contrast the Question, who refuses to give in, is rescued by Green Arrow, another such rebel.

But the debate between the Question and Martian Manhunter segues from them to different characters. Emerging into the light and plain view, Lara, appears first wrapped as if in a sheet, and then, as if claiming her heritage and role in the world, in a variant of Superman's costume: she is the new Supergirl (as Brainiac soon names her) and Superman's heir and future successor. She begins by soliloquizing against not only her father's sense of helpless resignation, but also his attitude towards humanity: "Father. You are wrong. This time is ours. This world is ours." Her words unite with her actions, as he smashes through Brainiac's immense frog-like robotic form and blows it up with her heat vision. (Miller seems to use heat vision, and the recurring image of glowing red eyes, as a sign of Superman and Lara's superhuman natures.)